Pippin Foster has been on quite the ride during his short time on Killjoys. First introduced last season as a young man with a mouth who can get anything you need from the black market, Pippin has of late become somewhat of a hero. And perhaps even a romantic one at that, if you take into account the goo-goo eyes he and Zeph have been sharing.
Now Pip is a fulltime member of Team Awesome Force and we couldn’t be happier. Neither can Atticus Mitchell, the actor who plays Pip with aplomb. We spoke to Mitchell—who has most recently starred in Young Drunk Punk and Second Jen—during a break in filming Season 4 to talk about the character and his music career, which you can follow on Spotify.
What’s it been like being part of Killjoys?
Atticus Mitchell: It’s been a breeze. There are always trials and tribulations with any project but for me, this has been a very strange, really easy go. I literally live 10 minutes away [from set] so my commute is set. I wake up 15 minutes before I have to be here. Everybody is fantastic, the scripts are always tight. We move fast and as long as we know everything it’s all hunky dory.
Pippin made an immediate impact on Dutch, Johnny and D’avin. He’s loud, brash and memorable. How did you get the role?
AM: I auditioned and got it. [Laughs.] Pretty much everybody in my age range went for it. With a show like this they’re introducing characters almost daily, so you have friends going out for the same show all the time. This was my first-ever audition for Killjoys and it happened to work out. It was just a guest-star role and then it turned into more.
At what point did they pull you aside and tell you this role would be expanded?
AM: If it says ‘guest star’ on the audition, that’s what you plan for. There were maybe two weeks of my life that I was dedicated to the series. They wrote another episode that I was in and I was like, ‘Great to be back!’ Then they wrote me into two scenes in the last episode of Season 3, which then turned into—on the morning of my last day—’Hey, are you free the rest of the day?’ I said, ‘Why?’ And they said, ‘Well, we have this ship sequence with a whole bunch of people looking over a monitor and deciding what to do. We’d like you to be in all those scenes.’ I was like, ‘OK, cool, yeah, I’m background.’ ‘No, we’ve written your lines.’ And here we are in Season 4.
Do you view Pippin as a hero?
AM: I think I saw him as not necessarily a hero, but a good guy. The good guy in their own story. He’s been raised privileged and runs around with a lot of bad people and enjoys his life. Then he got swept up into something that is about way more than him. That has transitioned him into this kind of hero role. If he thinks he’s the good guy in the story then he’s the good guy in the story.
What’s it like being part of the Killjoys family?
AM: It’s tough coming into a new show as a guest star and trying to find a place where you feel comfortable. It’s rare that a group will open their arms like this group has which is really nice. I’ve been on shows where new people come and go and you don’t really have time to get to know them. Here it’s necessary for everyone to feel welcome.
What are you doing when you’re not acting?
AM: I’m actually a composer. I make music on my piano.
For television and film or just for yourself?
AM: That could be a step I take but I’ve literally just started last year. I put out my first album of just seven songs of me playing the piano. That’s what I’m able to focus on outside of this.
Killjoys airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on Space.
